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Reservist Says: 'We Are Not Cowards'
By Heather Vogell
The Charlotte Observer
Army specialist speaks about disobeyed order in Iraq fuel mission.
People across the country have been telling stories about Spc. Major Coates and his fellow soldiers all week.
On Wednesday, the Mount Holly reservist decided to speak for himself.
The voices of the Army reservists who disobeyed a direct order last week in Iraq have been noticeably absent from news accounts of the incident. Instead, relatives such as Coates' father, Johnny, and military officials, have spoken for the soldiers.
But Coates telephoned the Observer from Iraq Wednesday, saying he wanted to clear up some misinformation.
In addition to correcting details in an account his father gave the newspaper Tuesday, Coates said he wanted to emphasize a key point: That neither he, nor his fellow soldiers, were too afraid to go on the mission they refused.
"We are not cowards," he said. "The way that things come out, it makes us look like that. ... Our soldiers have run missions all over Iraq; we're never scared to go on a mission."
Coates' call came the same day that the mother of a Maiden reservist provided new details about the incident.
Genia White said her son Spc. Reeves Williams was the only reservist to first refuse the order, then later carry it out when superiors addressed soldiers' concerns.
Last week, 18 members of the Rock Hill-based 343rd Quartermaster Company refused to make a 230-mile journey through dangerous terrain to deliver fuel to Taji, north of Baghdad.
Relatives said the soldiers' trucks were breaking down, that they lacked a proper armed escort and that the fuel they were to deliver was contaminated.
Army officials dispute that account. They say they are investigating the incident, which could be the first instance in which soldiers disobeyed a direct order since the conflict began.
The reservists could face courts-martial.
In a call placed at roughly midnight Iraq time, Coates said his father may have gotten details wrong because he misunderstood or was upset about what happened.
"I love the military and I have nothing against the military," said the 26-year-old. "It's done a lot for me. I'm a third-generation soldier."
For one, Coates said he was not riding on a "flatbed" truck, as his father described, during a mission immediately before the one refused. He declined to say what type of truck he was riding in, saying he could not discuss the incident at all because of the investigation.
Coates also said he was wearing body armor during the mission, though his father said he was not.
Coates added that he was properly trained to deploy to Iraq. He said that when he arrived, officials "did not tell us we were infantry now," as his father had said. Coates is a water treatment specialist.
Relatives have said that the military "mistreated" soldiers. Asked whether he was mistreated, Coates paused and declined to comment. He said he could not discuss any aspect of the investigation.
But he did say several times that his father's description of soldiers banding together to refuse the order was incorrect.
"We did not form a group on the decision we made," Coates said. "Everyone made their own individual decision to do what we thought best."
How that decision came about could affect what punishment the soldiers receive, a military law expert said Wednesday. If the 18 soldiers did act as a group, punishment for disobeying orders could be more severe.
"The military is going to be much more concerned about a group operating together instead of individuals making decisions independently," said Edward Sherman, a professor at the Tulane University Law School and former Army lawyer.
"... A group would be much easier to shade into something that no one has been talking about much in this debate: A mutiny," he said.
Coates declined to discuss his status, but said he's back on duty. "I'm serving my time to my country, because I love America," he said. "If the leaders do their part, I do my part."
Reached at his home near Mount Holly, Coates' father said his son on Wednesday "explained it to me a bit differently than he did before."
"Whatever I say might help or hurt him," Johnny Coates said. "He doesn't want us to comment on it until the case is resolved."
Also Wednesday, Genia White said her son, Reeves Williams, is waiting to find out whether he will be court-martialed on three charges related to refusing orders -- even though he completed the mission.
Williams, 19, provides security for convoys on a gun truck. She said he volunteered for the job.
When refusing the order, Williams and other soldiers demanded two things, White said: "He said that what he asked for was trucks that could get him up and get him back, and the correct fuel."
After the soldiers complained, a superior agreed to provide another unit's trucks and the correct fuel, she said her son told her. He decided to go, she said.
But the other soldiers continued to refuse, she said. White asked her son why. "He said `I can't answer for them,' " she said. "He told me he just didn't know."
When Williams got back from the mission, which didn't encounter problems, he discovered the 17 other soldiers had been detained, she said. Williams was also read his rights and questioned, she said. Army officials have denied that anyone was detained or arrested.
"The other guys in the unit are looking at him like `you should have stood with us,' " White said. "He told me he had to do what was in his heart and fulfill the mission."
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